England’s white-ball side are reeling from a semi-final exit at the T20 World Cup, but thoughts will quickly turn to the Test team, with the squad for the first series of the summer, against West Indies, to be announced in the coming days.
After a glorious 2022, Brendon McCullum’s wild things have hit the skids somewhat. Series draws to New Zealand and Australia were followed by a first series defeat of the tenure, against India in India. Stuart Broad has bid farewell, and James Anderson will join him after one Test.
The India tour brought to an end the first half of the cycle. Next year, India will return to England, and England will head to Australia. Before then, it’s West Indies and Sri Lanka this summer, and a repeat of the 2022/23 winter, with tours to New Zealand and Pakistan.
Here’s a runthrough of the most pressing issues facing McCullum’s side.
How do England replace James Anderson?
There’s one Test left of one of the great England careers, and the first squad selection of the summer will give an insight into what life will look like afterwards. It’s come at a strange sort of time. Outside of Anderson, England’s attack has rarely looked less settled in recent times.
There’s a whole host of names who could be in the fray, but arguably no nailed-on starters. Mark Wood, Chris Woakes, Ollie Robinson and Matt Potts are the capped bowlers likely to be in the frame, but there are reasons each isn’t guaranteed to play. Gus Atkinson, Dillon Pennington and Sam Cook are the newbies to look out for. With Cook nursing a hamstring injury, the Telegraph are reporting it’s the first of those two likely to get the nod.
Who keeps?
The debate rumbles on. Jonny Bairstow kept last summer (when he batted decently and improved with the gloves as the series went on), and it was back to Ben Foakes in India, with Bairstow a specialist bat again (when neither did much with the bat but Foakes kept well). But it’s no longer just about them. Foakes has been messed around, but is also unlikely to be a Test bat who averages 40. Bairstow is yet to reach his pre-leg break heights, and has been on the road for basically eight months. He could do with a rest at least, and England could use that time to look at someone new. Three candidates stand out: Phil Salt, who has impressed when he has played in the County Championship and is a newly established white-ball star, and Ollie Robinson and Jamie Smith, who have each been prolific for Durham and Surrey respectively this season. Robinson has the better record and actually keeps regularly for his club. But the Telegraph are reporting it’s Smith who gets the nod.
Who’s the spinner?
Despite a 4-1 defeat, England left India with a cadre of contrasting, exciting spinners to call upon, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. There’s a case to be made for each of Shoaib Bashir, Tom Hartley, Rehan Ahmed and Jack Leach, and there’s little County Championship form to go on. Leach earned his place as England’s No.1 and so is likely to reclaim that spot, but that could leave England with a long tail, which might bring Hartley into the picture.
Who’s the back-up batter?
It’s less exciting, but it is still important, especially if Ollie Pope’s lean run continues and forces England into a decision. Dan Lawrence has been the perennial benchwarmer, and a century in his most recent innings could well be enough to retain that status. However, with Harry Brook returning, England could just pick two of Bairstow, Robinson and Smith and have them combine as keeper and batting back-up. Beyond them, Jordan Cox is the leading English run-scorer in Division One, delivering on his pre-season promise of a Brook-esque campaign, but he might remain one for the future. Josh Bohannon is another name who crops up in these discussions; he is averaging a tick below 40 this season, decent, but not enough to break down the door.
How do England balance the present and the future?
England rarely surge through a home summer without slipping up somewhere, and should be wary of West Indies in particular, who have a daunting pace attack and claimed a rousing victory over Australia at the Gabba in their most recent Test. But it can’t be avoided that the Men in Maroon and Sri Lanka make up for one the lowest-key Test summers in recent times, and 2025 will be era-defining. Should England just pick the team they expect to feature Down Under, and what would that mean for Woakes and Bairstow in particular? Is there a case for resting a major batter to find out a bit more about the level below? Can they rotate enough to find out what Atkinson, Pennington and Cook are about? This summer is about more than this summer.
